“…scattered throughout this darker narrative, we also see Brigitte reveling in small childhood pleasures: learning to ride a bike, finding a blanket-stuffed nook to read a few precious books, and picking blueberries in the summer, mushrooms in the spring and fall.”
So writes reviewer Amanda Eggert regarding “Don’t Say Anything to Anybody” (DSATA), a memoir of the child of a Nazi soldier, crafted by Montana Coauthor’s founder, Anika Hanisch. “I’m grateful that the reviewer caught some of the book’s subtleties,” Hanisch said. “The book has received other positive national coverage, but this Montana Quarterly review is one of the most perceptive.”
DSATA is an intimate portrait of childhood within the Nazi regime and how that regime often abused its own children. The story portrays subtle and not-so-subtle connections between family violence and cultural acceptance of atrocities. While the over-arching themes are hard, the story is fast-paced and contains surprising moments of compassion and humanity–as Eggert pointed out. Many kind-hearted souls along the protagonist’s journey make it possible for young Brigitte to eventually break free from her family system, meet a Jewish Holocaust survivor, and learn the truth about the war.
The book also earned high praise in a recent Kirkus Review.
Don’t Say Anything to Anybody, by Brigitte Z. Yearman with Anika Hanisch, was published by Third Path Press in 2017. It is available through Amazon and wherever fine books are sold.